3 Matching Annotations
  1. Sep 2021
    1. What I mean is this. I don’t discount the plays I’ve written but I do realize that I am growing and changing as I grow. Once Miss X starts thinking that she can/ shouldmust only write Xian literature and anything that is not clearly Xian is a betrayal to the great Xian tradition, or a slap in the face to the traditions of all those who have kindly accepted Miss X into their folds-once Miss X buys into the exis- tence of an Xian style of writing and once that purchase keeps her simply and stupidly repeating her last best hit, well, then Miss X gets really stinky-no matter in what genre she writes or in what camp she parks, naturalists, realists, avant-gardists, or experimentalists. As a writer know that your work flows from the river of your spirit, your own private Mississippi. Get out of the way

      A paragraph I’ll probably take to the grave because for the longest time I’ve thought and thought of what was “Alexian language” and I wrote, rewrote, revised, rethought, even reinvented what that “language” was to me what my tradition was and reading this and know that miss Parks does the same what I’ve imagined Alexian might be that being the revisiting and revision of history. So I’ll stop the over barring thoughts and let the river of my spirit flow, although my flow is more the white rapids.

    2. The Great Tradition is an enormous sledgehammer that comes with very few operating instructions. Many writers use the hammer incorrectly- grasping it firmly by the handle (we always get the first step right) and then- horror- hitting ourselves over the head with it. Or as a student of mine said once, “I don’t write as well as Dos- toyevsky, so what’s the use?”

      I like that life, at least for me seems to portray itself as a comedian because this is a conversation we had in another class of mine. The conversation being how reading can make people create a civil society and we spoke about the counter to that how some people can get last in translation. Blurring the line between the written word and their reality and forgetting that there’s a separation there. You’ll never be your favorite writer because there’s only one of them and even yet that writer might of not even believed in themselves. So what I’d have to say to that is grab the hammer, make a mess of everything and jam all the pieces together no matter if they fit or not.

    3. The Great Tradition is the tradition of the past, those millions of great writers and storysmiths all over the world throughout the ages, weaving their tales and enthralling their audiences. Some met with success in their own lifetimes, some not until long after their own deaths. Some were ridiculed and revered later, some revered then ridiculed later. However they were treated and whatever color or gender they hap- pened to have been, God bless them, they’re dead.

      I’m really big on The Great Tradition because writings of the last as Parks saw “Haunts” us, for people like me it’s held us captive. I’ve always believed the old was something to be appreciated, reviewed endlessly to try and get a glimpse of the past because some of the old is still alive, it still breaths and we read it, make it into movies, and plays. That’s what fascinates me so much how these old stories be it draws on a wall or words on paper still prompt ideas so far into the future that you’d think people become writers to be immortal.